Charlotte, i did the Boots Ultimate Driving Experience day at £180 (i think). I had a large choice of what I could do from rallying to single seat racing to Silverstone Grand Prix Experience.
It started off great, we were told that we were some of the few people who get to drive the full Grand Prix track (exactly how it was raced the week before for the British GP) and we were going to be driving the Audi TT 3.2 V6 DGS (twin clutch+gearbox = extremely quick gear changes). Then they said "you will get 20-25 minutes in the car" - everybody but me seemed happy with that so I shut up and pretended it was what I expected (for £180 I expected alittle more I admit!). Drove down to the pits and parked up, got helmets and were given partners. Mine was an old bloke and so was my "instructor". I allowed him to go first, I wanted to get my feet a bit and play with the camcorder my gf had brought lol.
The cars went around (along with a Caterham at the same time making a hell of a noise!) and came back, all but my car, nice, he came about 5 minutes after everybody else (mainly because the old bloke took 3 mins longer than everybody else to get strapped in lol) so I quickly went to the car and introduced myself etc.
From this point he made me feel totally uncomfortable (this isn't something I really told my gf) like I didn't understand about the harness straight away so he got quite rude about that making me feel dead stupid. OK, i can forget that. However, over the next 18 minutes he made me feel even more uncomfortable, I felt like he wasn't constructively advising me on my driving but was actually criticising and at times nearly taking the ****. I know totally why he should be quite stern about it incase I was dangerous (which wasn't the case, I simply wasn't aggressive enough IMO) but when I came down the start finish straight and went underneath the second set of lights and not in between the second and third set and got shouted at I got quite upset if you get what I mean?
So yeah, it was fun driving but I wanted an ejector seat button for my "instructor". He asked me if I wanted to go off auto and I said "no thanks, it's hard enough and I just want to do everything else I can right now" "oh, ok" he seemed shocked rather than understanding. Next time we came past the pits "can you go in please" thought fine as my concept of time was obviously destroyed in the car. Pulled into pits and hang on, where is everybody else? Last out by 5 minutes I was first in by 3 minutes - so assuming the first out was the first in after me, around 10 minutes less than everybody else! 18 minutes it was I got (camcorder showed it) and I was quite pissed off.
He then took me around the track once (i.e. out pit lane, in pit lane, not a full lap) which was mind blowing but i frankly hadn't wanted to get back in the car with the idiot.
Then drove back to the building we were based in (as smurfhead, my car felt like a joke! The acceleration from my uno in second was like the tiny delay you got in the TT when you floored it and it took a short time for the car to change down gear or whatever)
Then got a crappy certificiate and supposedly an advice slip on impoving driving, all of which I think I was given As on - so kind of pointless! We were told we could get a photo of us driving too, went to the gift shop for it and i think the disc version (floppy disk) was £26 and the disc plus print was £35.....for a photo!
Walked out with gf and said I needed the toilet, she said "well go" but I was so pissed off by it all I didn't even want to go back in the building.
It was a good experience, worth a £180? Personally I think definitely not, you must be joking but I am quite mean with my money. However, £10 a minute is a serious expenditure for most people, i mean it's more than Stu earns! I was unlucky with my instructor and the timing, I complained to boots who agreed with me and gave me £35 as an apology - originally offered a high speed passenger lap but I told them it would cost me more than £35 to get to Silverstone!
Silverstone also lied to boots sending them the brief from the day claiming that everybody had done 2 lots of 6 laps and maybe I had missed my second go?! Erm, I bet my life there was no second go! Silverstone also claimed that it was possible I was first in and last out due to overtaking everybody and lapping them, to which I replied "yeah right!"
Maybe I was unlucky but I will never do an experience day in my life, if I want to do something (like Stu mentioned) I would sort it out myself, lots of people offer services like that you just have to do a bit of looking and don't get the fancy packaging you get at say Boots.
BTW: If I had a better instructor but still got the same amount of time I would have still have been dead annoyed so it wasn't just our personality's clashing.
If you still want to go ahead whatever you would do I would make sure you know exactly what you will get for your money - I told boots that this is a huge problem, if people were aware they would get 20-25 minutes in the car they wouldn't be so unhappy when they got that. They said "they would look into it" but they know as much as i do that sales would drop if people say they were spending the best part of £200 (excl. transport etc.) for 20 mins in a car which you are even guarenteed!
Sorry about the length of this, I find it hard to be brief sometimes lol, PM me/post here if you want any specific questions answering.
Paul
